Does Oracle Want Google To Join OpenJDK?

October 11, 2010
Jessica Thornsby

Fabrizio Giudici sees the IBM/Oracle deal as proof that Oracle wants Google to be in its OpenJDK gang.

What does the IBM/Oracle deal over OpenJDK, mean for Google?

Android uses a subset of Harmony, using class libraries and the
Dalvik Java Virtual Machine. Fabrizio Giudici points out that, although Google has the
resources to sustain Android development on its own, this move has
left them isolated, especially since the future of Apache Harmony
is seriously in doubt, now they have lost their major backer.
Fabrizio Giudici tightly links the Google/Oracle lawsuit to the new
IBM/Oracle deal, theorising that the lawsuit may have arisen out of
Google’s refusal to join IBM and Oracle and the OpenJDK project.
“This strengthen others’ and my own idea that Oracle doesn’t really
want to shut Android down, but to take it under the OpenJDK
umbrella,” he states.

Sacha Labourey predicts that Google is now in a position to
potentionally sue Oracle for refusing to grant Apache the
appropriate Java SE license, or give Apache a helping hand in
sueing Oracle. “I see this as the only remaining open item that
could change the game. And if this doesn’t happen, ORCL will have
won by KO,” Sacha writes. He isn’t holding out hope that the JCP
will reject these new JSRs.

“Unless GOOG initiates a lawsuit against ORCL over the JSPA, I
think this is game-over,” he concludes.